the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: i would ask that the quorum call be dispensed with, please. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: thank you so much, mr. president. just in the lull here and if there is any legislative business to take place, i will immediately give up the floor, but in this lull i just want to make a point. i am so proud to be in this senate, so proud to be here for a long time now, came here in 1993, there were two women, we went to six women, now we're going to 20 women and i've seen changes and i've seen good things and i've seen rough things. but i have to say one of the things that keeps coming up continually here is folks trying to use these debates on bills to add irrelevant amendments, amendments that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. i think we all agree that defending our nation is our number-one priority, and therefore having a defense authorization bill is very, very important. and i'm sure that we don't agree with every single sentence of this bill, but i